Evaluating e-government projects on the basis of public policy effects

The evaluation of IT-based projects in Public Administration is mainly carried out on the basis of technical measures, like cost reductions, project timing, and degree of efficiency of IT spending. We show here, on the basis of a theoretically-grounded and process-based evaluation model, that what is truly important in e-government project evaluation is not only the generation of new IT assets (policy output), but also their proper use (policy outcome) and their final effects on policy takers (policy impact). Our case study shows how, a low-cost and small IT integration project can significantly leverage the legacy systems, enhancing the overall degree of IT conversion effectiveness (first stage), with expected positive effects on policy outcomes (second stage) and policy impacts (third stage). This theory-based approach may actually suggest new ways to evaluate e-government projects in order to maximize the value generated and, ultimately, to ensure a higher degree of actuation of public policy objectives